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The Common Good Working Paper WP-937 July, 2011 THE COMMON GOOD Antonio Argandoña IESE Business School – University of Navarra Av. Pearson, 21 – 08034 Barcelona, Spain. Phone: (+34) 93 253 42 00 Fax: (+34) 93 253 43 43 Camino del Cerro del Águila, 3 (Ctra. de Castilla, km 5,180) – 28023 Madrid, Spain. Phone: (+34) 91 357 08 09 Fax: (+34) 91 357 29 13 Copyright © 2011 IESE Business School. IESE Business School-University of Navarra - 1 THE COMMON GOOD Antonio Argandoña 1 Abstract The concept of common good occupied a relevant place in the classical social, political and economic philosophy, then lost ground in the modern age, and has recently reappeared, although with different and sometimes confusing meanings. This paper is the draft of a chapter of a handbook; it explains the meaning of common good in the Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy and in the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, why is it relevant and how is it different of the other uses of the term in the liberal and liberal-welfarist, communitarian and totalitarian social philosophies, and in the capabilities approach. Keywords: Aristotle, Capabilities, Common Good, Liberalism, Sen, Society, Thomas Aquinas. Note: For the Handbook on the Economics of Philanthropy, Reciprocity and Social Enterprise. Second draft, July 2011. 1 Professor of Economics, "la Caixa" Chair of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance, IESE IESE Business School-University of Navarra THE COMMON GOOD Introduction In current ethical and political discourse, the common good is often a rhetorical concept, defined in very diverse ways. It had a prominent place in the political and social philosophy of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, then lost ground when Western philosophy took an individualistic turn, and with the predominance of multiculturalism, which excludes any unitary conception of the good, but continued to be one of the main pillars of Catholic social teaching (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2004, no. 160). It returned to relevance in view of the modern manifestations of totalitarianism and other developments in recent decades, as a response to questions such as, is it possible to have a politics founded on a universal morality? Can there be a univocal notion of good in a multicultural world? Is a welfare state that combines economic prosperity with equality viable? In Catholic social teaching the common good is defined as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily” (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2004, no. 164). This is a widely accepted definition that we can take as a starting point. In this article we shall focus on the doctrine of the common good in the personalist tradition (Maritain, 1966), which starts with Plato and Aristotle and continues with Thomas Aquinas and Catholic social teaching. Following a brief review of the historical background, we shall discuss the relationship between the common good and human sociability, and between private goods and the common good, to then explain how the common good is built in a society. After that, we shall describe other conceptions of the common good, ending with the conclusions. The Common Good in the History of Thought In the classical or Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, the notion of the common good relates the good of people insofar as they are part of a community to the good of the community insofar as it is oriented toward the people that are its members. For Aristotle, the formation of any community requires a common good, because “the end of the city is living well… It is to be assumed, therefore, that the object of the political community is good actions, not only life in IESE Business School-University of Navarra common” (1984a, III, 9, 1280b-1281a). For that reason the common good is constituted first of all by virtue, that is, by that which in a positive and stable way develops human beings in accordance with their nature. Thomas Aquinas (1981, 1997) revived Aristotelian theory. The common good acquires its meaning in governance: “to govern is to lead what is governed to its appropriate end” (1997, Book II, c. 3). The purpose of man is to contemplate and enjoy the highest of goods, God. The common good therefore has both a supernatural dimension and a temporal dimension, which coincides with what society needs in order to live in a good way. In modern times, the concept of the common good was cut off from that tradition, and so there appeared a range of positions, from individualistic liberalism (the good of society yields to that of the individual) to collectivism (society is an entity in its own right, with a collective good that is different from and higher than the good of its members). In the 20th century, the flourishing of Thomism gave new prominence to the concept of the common good. Maritain (1966) contrasts his “personalist” conception with “bourgeois individualism”, “communist anti-individualism”, and “totalitarian or dictatorial anti-communist anti-individualism”. The human person is part of a community and, in that sense, is subordinate to the community, but the person is much more than a member of the community, because he has a transcendent dimension, so that society must have the person as its end. In the second half of the 20th century, the Second Vatican Council (1965, no. 26) stated clearly that the person is the subject, the root, the beginning and the end of all social life and all social institutions. Within the personalist tradition, Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) developed the thesis that the person is naturally social, not only by necessity but on account of his ontological plenitude. In Sollicitudo rei socialis (John Paul II, 1987), he proposed the articulation between solidarity and the common good, describing solidarity as “the firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all” (no. 38). The Encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Benedict XVI, 2009) has prompted renewed consideration of the common good as an ordering principle of economic life. “The exclusively binary model of market-plus-State is corrosive of society” (no. 39); what is needed is “increasing openness, in a world context, to forms of economic activity marked by quotas of gratuitousness and communion” (no. 39). The introduction of the “logic of gift”, not only in civil society but also in the market and the State, thus opens new horizons for the role of the common good. “This is not merely a matter of a “third sector”, but of a broad new composite reality embracing the private and public spheres, one which does not exclude profit, but instead considers it a means for achieving human and social ends” (no. 46). And this promotes consideration of the common good in the “category of relation” (no. 53), because “relationality is an essential element” of the “humanum” (no. 55). Sociability and the Common Good Human beings always seek the good (Aristotle, 1984b, I.1) – goods of all kinds, material or otherwise – and that seeking takes place in society. They need society not only to satisfy their needs but, above all, to develop as persons. Sociability is not a whim, an instinct or a constraint, but a property that flows from the nature of the person. 2 - IESE Business School-University of Navarra Society does not arise from a contract by which individuals surrender part of their freedom to the group in order to guarantee their protection and avoid conflict. It is not a mere aggregate of persons, yet it has no nature of its own independent of that of its members. Society’s members are like the parts of a whole, but not in the way the arm is part of the body, as the arm cannot survive if separated from the body, whereas man retains his personality intact when separated from society. If society is not a mere aggregate of subjects, it must have an end –its common good– which cannot be reduced to the particular good of its members. The centrality of the person demands that the end of society include the good of individuals, each and every one. There is, therefore, a good of the person and a good of society, which do not coincide but are related to one another. A person seeks his personal good because he cannot desire anything that he does not see as a good for himself; but he also seeks it in society. It would be a contradiction if he were able to achieve his own good at the expense of, or even outside of, the common good. Society, in turn, has its own good, which is common to all its members but is not the sum of their personal good. Being common, it cannot be the good of some, nor even the majority; rather, it is the good of all and of each one, at the same time and for the same reason. It is very unlikely, however, that the members of a diversified community will all have the same conception of what their common good is. Does this mean that the common good cannot be realized? Not if the members of that community are aware that they can achieve their particular good only within the community; that serving the good of the community is a precondition for achieving their personal good; and that, therefore, they must contribute to the good of the other members of society – not to the particular good of each one but to the good that the community provides to them.
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